Hot Fuzz - Ideology

Movies can serve multiple purposes. Obviously, they can be aesthetically pleasing. They can bring amazing visuals and sound to the screen. Another, often overlooked aspect of film is the ideology. Ideologies can be neutral, implicit or explicit. Neutral ideologies emphasize on entertainment values. Implicit ideologies represent conflicting value systems (good guy vs. bad guy), but the “moral of the story” isn’t spelled out. Explicit ideologies aim to persuade the viewer (Giannetti 405).   

From the start of the film, there isn’t much to go on to tell who the good vs. bad guys are. As the film goes on there are hints here and there, but nothing that jumps out at you. Looking back after watching the film one might wonder how one missed certain clues. The film takes on the “not everything is as it seems” motif and completely twists the cause of “the greater good. (…the greater good).”

The main actors (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) are friends that have worked together on various projects. Other actors such as Jim Broadbent (Inspector Butterman) had asked to be in one of Pegg’s and Edgar Wright’s films and his part was specifically written for him. Edward Woodward (Tom Weaver) was cast to fill a role similar to a role he played in The Wicker Man. 

Wright relied heavily on mise-en-scene, mostly for foreshadowing, whether it was placing a costume dummy with no head in a shot just before the murders of Eve Draper and Martin Blower, the village-of-the-year plaques in Inspector Butterman’s office, or Bernard Cooper’s sword (which is seen much later) above the fireplace at Sgt. Angel’s entrance to the Swan Hotel. In some of the scenes, notably after Angel incapacitates one of the NWAs goons, Wright had all of the sound dropped out of the scene to add the element of surprise when PC Butterman enters Angel’s room. The only time the dialect comes to the forefront is during a scene in which Sgt. Angel, PC’s Butterman and Walker go to “the country” to talk to a resident. Arthur Webley has a thick English accent, which needs to be translated by PC Bob Walker, then needs to be translated by PC Butterman, who then translates it for Sgt. Angel. Of course, that’s not to say that American audiences, in particular my mother, didn’t have trouble understanding most of the film due to the English accents.

The main character Sgt. Nicholas Angel would appear to be at the center of the political spectrum. His no-nonsense, extremely professional attitude would indicate that the law is the law and that is the rule to follow and isn’t swayed to the right or the left.

Religion plays no role in the film, despite one of the minor characters being a priest. All the characters are English, so there aren’t any “ethnic” values in the film. Everything is recognizable as “Western.” No characters appear to be gay. Women aren’t portrayed poorly; there just aren’t any strong female roles. Joyce Cooper is probably the strongest female in the film. She’s the owner of The Swan Hotel where Sgt. Angel stays and leads the NWA meetings. PC Doris Thatcher, the only female officer, is a woman that “has been around the station a few times.” Every time Mary Porter is on screen, she shares the scene with her husband.

In a word, the genre of Hot Fuzz is hard to pin down. IMDB has it listed as a comedy and it is. It’s just much more than that. One can’t go more than a few seconds without some kind of gag (visual or audible). It definitely holds true to the “comedy” label. It’s also a buddy-cop film. Sgt. Angel is a no-nonsense, by-the-book Sergeant and his new partner, Danny Butterman, is more of a wannabe action film cop. It also plays as a mystery. Obviously, there are crimes being committed, but in this renowned village what or who is responsible? As the film goes along, we come to know that there are sinister forces at work. It can also be considered an action film. Both Wright and Pegg watched an extensive amount of action films and used Roger Ebert’s book of movie cliché’s to add to this film. There isn’t much action in the first half of the film, but we get shootouts, explosions, and car chases in the second half.

Because of the differing genres of the film, the tone differs throughout the film as well. When the film is obviously a comedy, most of the lighting is light and bright. When the storyline turns more serious and mysterious the lighting gets moodier and darker, especially in the scene when Sgt. Angel confronts the NWA at the castle.

The tone doesn’t necessarily reinforce nor mock the characters. Some of the comedy in the film comes from the fact that Sgt. Angel is so no-nonsense and the rest of the Sandford police squad seems to be winging it.

The hypothesis set forth by Carney is an intriguing one. In 2015, we are seeing more social calls to action which are rejecting some of the thought processes of the past. Carney goes on, “The final resolution of the gunfight, after the chase scene, taking place in a scale model of the town, squarely places the characters of Pegg and Timothy Dalton – the latter practically being an emissary of older action films – as two giants, representing opposite ideologies, the progressive and the regressive, fighting over the very soul of the town (Carney).”